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Goals took a beating again this summer season

By Anonymous ()

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 - 4:29pm

“Labor Day weekend.”

Those three little words carry more weight around here than they do in most parts of this great nation.They signify the end of summer vacation for local students, the winding-down of the busy season for many local businesses and the unofficial marker of when we slide into “the second season” — the most wonderful time of all.

It also kind of puts shivers through one’s spine when it really soaks in what they represent. Summer is over? Already? Where did it go?

I remember Memorial Day weekend well. There was so much optimism for the summer. There would be cookouts and camping trips and beach excursions and photo shoots on the beach with Bob Bertram and Shaun Lambert in our Speedos and ...

But I digress.

Memorial Day did promise great things ahead and, honestly, it’s been a pretty great summer. Oh, there’s no doubt that we’ve been working hard and long here at the paper, as I’m sure many of you have been doing all summer long, but there have also been some great times. There has been a lot of meat making a stop at the grill on its way to my belly, many cold beers being shared with friends and a 25th high school reunion that somehow made me feel old and young again at the same time.

It’s been a fun summer, but all too quick at the same time. While planning for this big Labor Day week I was flipping through the Memorial Day issue and stumbled across my column where I wrote of the things I wanted to do and accomplish this summer. Much like when I find my annual column detailing some New Year’s resolutions, I found myself coming up a bit short of my stated goals.

For instance, I wrote that I was going to get some color on my skin this summer. The plan was that I would be outside so much this summer, and be so active, that I would get a good tan, or, at the least, a significant burn that would allow me to look less like a friendly ghost.

I can’t say that this goal was a total failure. I got quite a bit of sun playing cornhole on a few occassions with friends, and I definitely dropped a few notches on the pale-o-meter while sitting in the bleachers during the Senior League Softball World Series, but nothing ever held for more than a few days. The beckoning of an air-conditioned office and my general avoidance to the sun during the early-summer heat wave kept me from truly achieving that goal.

Grade: D

My next goal for the summer was to get to the beach. “I will get to the beach this summer,” I wrote. “I don’t mean just running down to Bethany for a meeting or searching for our photographer in Fenwick on a nice day. No, I will get some sun, swim in the waves and read a book. Actual beach time.”

Well, I did get down to Bethany for a few meetings. And I did hunt the beach in Fenwick looking for our photographer a few times. But, no, I haven’t gotten down to the beach yet. In fact, I haven’t even made plans to get down to the beach, opting instead for air conditioning and a couch on those few sunny days when there was nothing happening.

Grade: F

My last goal for the summer was to run a 10-K race with Ryan Saxton, and to actually finish the thing. Well, Ryan up and moved to Australia (see A41) and I never got the chance. Admittedly, that was not the reason I didn’t run a race this summer — my overall conditioning and love affair with my couch were the real culprits there, but let’s pin this on Ryan while we can. Truth be told, I’m pretty certain I didn’t walk 10 kilometers this summer if you combined every step I took.

Grade: F

So, yeah, there you have it. Summer 2012 will go down as another season when I didn’t meet my stated goals, but it was a fun one, nonetheless. And I still have time to get out on the beach with Shaun and Bob for that photo shoot before it gets too cold. None of us want that.

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